Synergy in Wisconsin

College re-opening or disdain for masks…or both! From WSJ:

Some public-health officials say they suspect that the large number of socially inclined students returning to the state at the end of August and start of September worked in tandem with another dynamic: a large number of state residents who don’t wear masks, they say, because many communities don’t require them or don’t enforce orders requiring them.

Regarding the effectiveness of local mandates:

In Dane County, home to UW-Madison, Katarina Grande, with Public Health Madison & Dane County, said her agency’s public-health policies—including a mask mandate, bars closed to indoor patrons and a prohibition on off-campus parties—can only do so much because neighboring communities have less stringent rules.

“We don’t allow gatherings here in our county but the rest of the state is pretty free of regulations, so we have people who went to weddings outside of our county and come back, and we have all sorts of football-related gatherings,” she said.

So, the people of Wisconsin thank the powers that be that struck down the Governor’s ability to implement statewide public health emergency measures. And seek to strike them down again.

Source: Wisconsin DHS.

Source: Wisconsin DHS.

31 thoughts on “Synergy in Wisconsin”

  1. pgl

    ‘A conservative law firm asked a judge on Monday to immediately put an end to Wisconsin’s mask mandate, arguing that Democratic Gov. Tony Evers doesn’t have the authority to issue such an order that comes as COVID-19 cases surge statewide. Attorneys for the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty filed the request in Polk County Circuit Court for an immediate injunction to declare the order invalid and void. It was part of an amendment to a lawsuit they had filed there in August against Evers’ first mask mandate. A court hearing was scheduled for Oct. 5 to consider the motion.’

    This institute might as well be advocating we treat this virus with blood leaching. Along with daily doses of bleach – what could go wrong.

    Look – wearing masks is clearly the right thing to do. Only an idiot would not do so. Alas this nation has a lot of idiots many of which wear MAGA hats but not masks.

  2. pgl

    Your chart on daily deaths using Wisconsin DHS clearly shows the 7-day average sharply rising. Of course people like Bruce Hall and CoRev will play Mr. Magoo and pretend not to see this. Maybe these two should be given a pair of glasses.

      1. Moses Herzog

        @ Bruce baby
        Have you thought about the factor of age here in your student deaths estimate Mr. Einstein???

        1. pgl

          We have to give Brucie Boy a break as everything he has said has shown to be false. Every damn thing. That must be some sort of world record.

          1. macroduck

            Because that’s what he’s paid to do.

            Nobody could put as much time into these discussions and continue to be wrong about everything without some strong motivation to be wrong. The human mind naturally adapts to new information in a way that Bruce does not do. What could explain his failure to adapt to new information? Brucey’s behavior is exactly that of a professional political hack, paid to sow doubt when doubt is unjustified. We know the Kochs and their ilk pay trolls to cast doubt on science, on facts, on reality.

            How should one respond to people like Brucey? Only two responses seem to make sense, but one of them is flawed. The flawed response is to ignore them – take in available facts and make judgements based on those facts, without reference to anything dishonest people say. The problem is that our brains don’t work that way, and political hacks know it. Our brains are not under conscious, rational control. We can’t ignore noise.

            That leave the second option. To counter-balance the effect of propaganda, one must actively disbelieve what propagandists say. If you know Bruce is trying to mislead (and he clearly is), then that amounts to information in itself. The best use of the knowledge that the Bruceys of the world want to mislead you is to assume they are lying, that the opposite of what they say is the actual truth.

            This amounts to a heuristic, not an analysis. That is not something to be shunned. Most human decision-making relies on heuristics. In fact, that’s what professional liars depend on. By getting lies in front of us on a frequent basis, they try to get our rule-of-thumb driven brains to conclude there is truth to the lie. The way to keep your heuristics clean is to actively disbelieve obvious liars.

  4. pgl

    Two related stories from CNN:

    https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/04/politics/joe-biden-mask-coronavirus-jason-miller-symone-sanders-cnntv/index.html

    A senior adviser to President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign claimed that Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden uses face masks as a “prop,” two days after the President was hospitalized after contracting the coronavirus. Senior campaign adviser Jason Miller, when pressed by ABC’s George Stephanopoulos about the rallies Trump has held in recent weeks where supporters are largely maskless and standing within six feet of one another in clear violations of federal health guidelines, said Sunday that Trump’s team takes health guidelines meant to curb the spread of the deadly disease “very seriously.”

    OK – Jason Miller is both a liar and a total jackass. But he is also incredibly stupid to say Team Trump has taken this virus very seriously.

    https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/04/politics/ohio-mike-dewine-trump-coronavirus-cnntv/index.html

    Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said Sunday that he has not been contacted by the White House about potential Covid-19 exposure in his state after President Donald Trump tested positive for the virus days after his Cleveland debate. “Well, they have not reached out to me. I know that I talked to the CEO of the Cleveland Clinic the other day who gave me an update, who gave me a report so I don’t know whether they have reached out to Cleveland Clinic or not. They have not talked to me about it, no,” the Republican governor told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union.” The President participated in the first presidential debate against Democrat Joe Biden in Cleveland last week. DeWine said that he didn’t attend the debate, but conceded to Tapper that he wished the President wore a mask more often. “Do I wish — look do I wish the President had worn a mask all the time? Of course. You know, of course,” he said.

    The utter irresponsibility of Trump and his family is just staggering.

  5. Alan Goldhammer

    “The utter irresponsibility of Trump and his family is just staggering.”

    When you have free access to every single experimental COVID-19 drug you can afford to be irresponsible. President Trump took HCQ some weeks ago as a prophylactic and there is likely still some floating around in his body as the 1/2 life is 25 days. In the past several days he has received: zinc, vitamin D, melatonin, remdesivir, the Regeneron dual monoclonal, and dexamethasone. All of them are still experimental and in clinical trials.

    Would the rest of us be so lucky. In the meantime as my signature in my newsletter stays, “Stay Safe, Mask Up, & Wash Hands”

    1. Bruce Hall

      Just one point: dexamethasone is not experimental; it is a commonly used steroid and used to reduce inflammatory responses in the body. My 69-year old brother-in-law in Florida was diagnosed with C-19 in early September and the ER administered dexamethasone and an antibiotic. The “elephant on my chest” disappeared in a couple of days and he felt pretty close to normal in a week. Unless you have an underlying condition such as heart disease, COPD, cancer, or diabetes, it is likely that you will go through an uncomfortable bout and then return to normal fairly quickly… or may not even notice that you are infected in the first place.

      1. pgl

        God you write some really dumb $hit. The issue is effectiveness with respect to COVID 19. Of course your advice is to take HCQ which addresses malaria but not this virus. Keep it up Brucie as the race is fierce but you still lead for Stupidest Man Alive!

      3. 2slugbaits

        Bruce Hall Unless you have an underlying condition such as heart disease, COPD, cancer, or diabetes…

        You forgot a few other factors that increase risk, such as race, ethnicity, income level, and access to healthcare. Your list of comorbidities betrays the biases of an economically comfortable white guy with access to good healthcare. Perhaps that’s why your a Trump guy.

      4. Alan Goldhammer

        Are you not the least bit curious why President Trump was not given HCQ + azithromycin? I seem to remember a recent post of yours pointing to all the clinical data showing how effective it is. Were this so, I would have expected it to be administered.

        With respect to dexamethasone, yes there is clinical evidence that it is useful for treatment of COVID-19. Since it is an approved drug it can be prescribed for that use but remember the data has not been evaluated by the FDA so it is an off-label use. This is different from remdesivir which is an experimental drug along with the dual Regeneron monoclonal antibodies. Marked difference here.

    2. Ivan

      The treatment of Trump so far has been remarkably incompetent. Either the DO supposedly in charge of the care is a fool, or Trump has substantial input on it. His HCQ “preventative treatment” was a sign of incompetent treatment since there are no scientific data in support of its benefits and it can have severe side-effects including on the heart. I wonder why HCQ was not given as treatment (either Trump is beginning to listen to the science (ha-ha) or he may have damaged his heart with it and is now completely shying away from it). His crashing oxygen levels could be a combination of lung damage and a heart damage.

      Dexamethasone makes sense only as treatment of cytokine storm – and timing is everything. The immune response to the virus induce a lot of cytokines and they are needed to keep the virus from taking over. Only if cytokines are sustained after the virus has been reduced drastically should you consider using Dexamethasone. However, in Trumps case an antibody treatment was initiated and cytokines may be the result of those injections. It is worth noticing that they have not announced that Trump has had a negative virus test yet (something they would do as soon as they found him free of virus just once). So he is taking the immunosuppressive drug Dexamethasone at a time his immune system is still struggling with kicking the virus out, probably based on a failed interpretation of his cytokine levels.

      It’s ironic that Trump accusing Biden of taking performance enhancing drugs, is taking Dexamethasone – a drug that makes people feel fantastic right away. Unfortunately, it may also allow the virus to hide and do substantial damage to his organs. Not a good thing if you old and already damage your heart with HCQ.

  6. Bruce Hall

    I don’t see a lot of correlation between the first and second chart. The relationship between reported “cases” and reported deaths is weak which indicates to me that the definition of “cases” has changed since spring.

    It would be of interest to see the actual demographics of cases and deaths. The CDC reports that information by demographic group, but doesn’t purely align by week due to delays processing death certificates.

    Why are all of those students traveling around Wisconsin infecting people in nursing homes? https://madison.com/wsj/news/local/health-med-fit/wisconsin-nursing-homes-report-271-covid-19-deaths/article_b33c214e-788e-51a1-a00e-46f2c9053425.html

    2. pgl

      “I don’t see a lot of correlation between the first and second chart.”

      Cases started going up in early September and then deaths started going up later in the month. But Bruce Hall thinks they should have gone up together? He does not realize there is a lag between getting the virus and dying from it? Every one else on the planet gets this simple reality. But not the village idiot we call Bruce Hall.

  7. le

    In Michigan we seem to be going in the same direction with the Supreme Court of the state striking down the governor’s executive orders.

  9. pgl

    When Kevin Drum speaks, everyone should listen:

    https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/

    COVID-19 Exposes Trump’s Sociopathic Side Like Nothing Before It

    Donald Trump has spent months trying to convince everyone that COVID-19 isn’t that big a deal, and that’s bad enough on its own. But the more we learn about the precise events of the past few days the more mind-boggling they become. The White House, as usual, is being cagey with definitive information, but here’s how it seems to have played out:

    Tuesday evening: At the Trump-Biden debate, the Republican side of the aisle, as usual, insists on going maskless. During the debate, Trump mocks Biden for always wearing a mask.
    Wednesday morning: Based on later reports from Saturday,¹ it appears that this is when Trump tested positive for coronavirus. He doesn’t bother informing the Biden campaign. Nor does he tell the American public.
    Wednesday afternoon: Trump attends an indoor fundraiser in Minneapolis. No one there is informed that he has tested positive for coronavirus.
    Wednesday night: Trump attends a rally in Duluth. No one there is informed that he has tested positive for coronavirus. On the flight home, Hope Hicks quarantines herself because she is exhibiting symptoms of COVID-19.
    Thursday morning: Trump is informed that Hicks has tested positive for coronavirus.
    Thursday afternoon: Trump attends an indoor fundraiser at his Bedminster golf club. No one there is informed that he has tested positive for coronavirus.
    Thursday evening: A reporter discovers that Hope Hicks has contracted COVID-19.
    A little after midnight Thursday: Trump finally tweets that he has tested positive. It’s unclear if the American public would ever have been told if no one had discovered that Hicks was infected.
    Friday: No tweets all day. Trump releases a video that has all the energy of a hostage video. Doctors tell Trump that if he wants to walk to Marine One under his own power for the trip to Walter Reed medical center, he should go now.
    Saturday morning: Trump’s physician says Trump was diagnosed “72 hours ago,” meaning Wednesday morning.¹ Another physician says Trump began Regeneron treatments “48 hours ago,” meaning Thursday morning. The White House later claims they misspoke. You may decide for yourself if you believe this, but given both Trump’s past record and the weaselly White House statements about the Thursday test “confirming” Trump’s diagnosis, I sure don’t. In the absence of documentary evidence to the contrary, I think they’re lying.

    If Trump really was diagnosed on Wednesday morning, his conduct since then has been reckless beyond belief. And even if the diagnosis happened Thursday night, it was reckless of him to continue attending fundraisers after learning that Hope Hicks was positive. Trump and Hicks spend a lot of unmasked time together, and her positive diagnosis, along with COVID-19 symptoms, was plainly a serious danger signal.

    Trump’s eight months of COVID denial has cost more lives than his personal behavior over the past few days, but there’s something here that goes beyond denial and partisan politics. He simply doesn’t care if he gets other people sick. He doesn’t care if other people die. It’s sociopathic beyond anything we’ve seen before.

    But it’s not just Trump. Was no one in the White House willing to stand up to Trump and insist that he cancel events and issue a press release? No one? Not one single person? What in the everlasting fuck is wrong with these people?

  14. pgl

    When you thought Trump’s disinformation on this virus could not get worse – he exceeds expectations:

    https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/stephaniemlee/trump-coronavirus-walter-reed-hospital-afraid

    ‘Trump Said “Don’t Be Afraid Of Covid” While In The Hospital For A Disease That Has Killed More Than 209,000 Americans
    Many members of Trump’s inner circle, including the president himself, have tested positive for COVID-19.
    President Donald Trump tweeted from the hospital Monday that people should not “be afraid of Covid” or let it “dominate your life,” after spending days undergoing a host of treatments for a disease that has killed more than 209,000 Americans. Trump claimed in the tweet that he will leave Walter Reed Medical Center at 6:30 p.m., a decision that is not yet confirmed. If true, it would seem to defy signs that his case of COVID-19 is severe, as well as clinical knowledge that suggests that infections can rapidly intensify in the second week of illness.’

    Trump wants to be the tough guy but note most people do not have the best doctors and treatments available to them. And if this self centered jerk gets very sick a week from now – no one should feel sort for this a$$hole.

    1. Jeffrey Brown

      We all hope the Trump has a full recovery, but let’s not forget the possibly hundreds of thousands of Americans who may die unnecessarily, just in 2020, because of Trump’s mishandling of the pandemic:

      WSJ: How South Korea Successfully Managed Coronavirus
      https://www.wsj.com/articles/lessons-from-south-korea-on-how-to-manage-covid-11601044329

      Excerpt:

      “South Korea appears to have cracked the code for managing the coronavirus. Its solution is straightforward, flexible and relatively easy to replicate. . . . As a result, South Korea never had to mandate a lockdown, so restaurants and business were able to stay open, cushioning the blow to the economy.”

      End Excerpt.

      Let’s assume that the US government chose to emulate South Korea’s approach to the virus, and let’s assume that the government was successful in this regard. In round numbers, this would probably imply that we would see a total cumulative COVID-19 death count of about 5,000 or so in the US.

      A study by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), which so far appears to be accurate, suggests a most likely US total death count of about 410,000, just through the end of 2020.

      Note that the difference between 410,000 and 5,000 is 405,000, which happens to be equal to the estimated total number of Americans who died in the Second World War.

      In other words, Trump’s decision not to follow the lead of countries like South Korea arguably may have caused the unnecessary deaths of Americans—just through 2020—that is equivalent to the number of Americans that the country lost in the Second World War.

      Given Trump’s position and access to data, one could plausibly make a case that he is probably guilty of depraved indifference. BTW, remember this?
      DNC speaker: My dad’s “only preexisting condition was trusting Donald Trump”

  17. Jeffrey Brown

    A big Democratic Texas Turnout can end our long national nightmare–on election night:

    Washington Post: Joe Biden can end the drama on election night. All he has to do is win Texas
    https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/10/04/joe-biden-win-texas/

    If Democrats put some money into the Lone Star State now, they could close off President Trump’s options

    The 10 Bellwether Counties That Show How Trump Is in Serious Trouble – DNyuz
    https://dnyuz.com/2020/10/06/the-10-bellwether-counties-that-show-how-trump-is-in-serious-trouble/

    In 2012, Collin County voted for Mitt Romney by 31 points. But in 2016, it voted for Mr. Trump by 17 points, and in the 2018 midterms Senator Ted Cruz carried it over Beto O’Rourke by just six points.

    Despite Texas’s old Wild West stereotype, the state now has one of the most metropolitan and diverse electorates in the country — and Mr. Trump’s erosion in its sprawling suburbs explains Mr. Biden’s surprising opportunity.

    At least three polls conducted for lower-tier races show Mr. Biden tied or leading Mr. Trump in the Third Congressional District, which covers most of Collin County — a stunning development to Texas political analysts.

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